She rang our door bell in a state of panic.  Arms extended, she was writhing in pain.  We pitied her ignorance as we treated her first and second degree burns.  Her story runs like this:

She put a pot of food on the stove to cook for their evening meal.  Then she went into the living room and got absorbed in watching TV.  The odor of burning food drew her back into the here and now.  Rushing into the kitchen, she discovered flames were leaping out of her pot.  In a state of panic (and being firmly convinced that demons were attaching her) she thrust her hands into the roaring fire, grabbed the cooking pot, picked it up and ran out of her kitchen.  As she entered the hallway, she slipped and dropped the pot.  Burning oil in her pot splashed out and caught a curtain on fire.  Continuing on in a high state of panic, she screamed at her little girls to run out of the house and get away from the fire.  At the same time she began dipping water out of her nearby storage barrel, and soon doused the fire out.  She quickly gabbed some money, ran out the front door and across the street to a clinic, leaving her little preschoolers to fend for themselves  The doctor treated her with something for pain and gave her a prescription for an ointment to rub on her burns.  Having used up her small supply of money, she ran to us for help.  We quickly dispatched Doris to the house to look after the girls, and  Francis to the pharmacy to buy the medication.  Papa Jim, our family doctor, put ice on the blistered forearms which immediately reduced the pain.

Her husband reports that this kind of thing happens regularly at their house.  Living with a wife prone to panic has it's challenges.  She often takes off and leaves the little girls alone.  She often burns meals because she is absorbed in TV.  She often does foolish things.  We all tried to help her learn a valuable lesson.  Only time will tell if it took.

But at Shiloh we have been having fire prevention and fire safety lessons.  We're all profiting from this ladies foolishness, even if she chooses not to.